Digital transformation and smart cities were both popular themes on ITBusiness.ca this year, and no manifestation of smart cities captured the imagination of more readers than the announcement by California-based Hyperloop One that a proposed route between Montreal and Toronto was one of 10 finalists in the company’s ambitious Global Challenge.

That means business and engineering resources will now be committed to researching the proposed 640-kilometre route, which would carry visitors between Toronto and Montreal, with a stop in Ottawa, in 39 minutes.

Internet search giant Google Inc. was cagey about the official Canadian release of its smart speaker, Google Home, with the product rumoured for months – and spotted by ITWC editorial director Brian Jackson on Best Buy Canada and Amazon Canada in April – before it was actually released in June.

Next to the Hyperloop One announcement, the example of digital transformation that captured the imagination of more readers than any other was Alex Radu’s profile of eSight Corporation’s eSight 3, a pair of third generation electronic glasses capable of restoring sight to the legally blind.

While not able to restore sight to the fully blind, the eSight 3 can help anyone with vision loss and acuity of between 20/70 and 20/600 reach a baseline of 20/20 to 20/30 vision.

In a year we feel comfortable calling objectively depressing for the world at large for reasons we’d rather not focus on for longer than we have to, we’re less than surprised to learn that one of the year’s most viral stories was among the most viral on ITBusiness.ca as well, thanks to Mandy Kovacs’ recap of the support some of Silicon Valley’s biggest tech companies gave Las Vegas resident Carter Wilkerson after he asked the Wendy’s Twitter account how many retweets he would need for a year of free chicken nuggets.

Former editor of ITBusiness.ca turned consultant with public relations firm Porter Novelli. When not writing for the tech industry enjoys photography, movies, travelling, the Oxford comma, and will talk your ear off about animation if you give him an opening.